The Forgotten Picture
by Ollie J. Rose
Summary: Sofee is just like any other teenager. She is perfectly happy with her life. Until she discovers there is something her mom is keeping from her.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** **Yay! Two stories in one day! I'm going to warn you, this one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger... I know, i know but please don't hate me! Just enjoy the story!**

It all started with one picture. One picture that turned my life upside down. One picture that told me my whole life was a lie, that family was a lie.

Two years ago, it was saturday and one of the rare occasions that I had absolutely nothing to do. I was laying on my floor, bouncing a ball against the ceiling. My mom comes in to check on me for the fifth time in the past ten minutes. "Hey sweetie. What are you doing?" Ugh… I thought. I swear if she asks me to… "Sofee? Sofee are you okay" My mom is hovering over me, looking at me with worry filled eyes. I sit up and sigh. "Yeah Mom I'm fine. Just like the last fifteen times you've asked."

When she finally leaves my phone starts ringing from across the room. I get up from my place on the floor and pick it up. "Hey Sofee! Can I come over? It is so boring here. My brother has friends over so I locked myself in my room to get away from them." I wince and hold the phone farther from my ear. "Sure, you can come over. As long as you don't blow my eardrums out. Again." We talk for awhile and she tells me she is on her way. "Mom!" I yell out for her. "What?" she says, sticking her head into the room. "Jaycie is coming over, okay?" "Okay, just don't make a mess this time."

When Jaycie gets to my house I turn on my TV and we watch season 4 of The Walking Dead. When we finish we decide to go through the hall closet because, you know, we have nothing better to do. We walk down the hall quietly so my mom doesn't know what we are doing. I open the closet and pull out this giant box. Jaycie has to help me since it weighs like, seven trillion pounds. We stumble down the hall, carrying the box back into my room.

I set the box down on my floor, or drop would be a better word, and the room fills with dust. Coughing, we try to fan the dust away. We sit down on the floor and open the dust covered box. It's filled to the brim with what looks like picture albums. I take out the first one and open it to the first page. On the page it says Sofee Astrid Baumer in big letters at the top. Below is a picture of me as baby. "Awe! You were so cute as a baby!" Jaycie gushes. I turn the page and see me with someone I didn't recognize. It was a man, tall and muscular with dark hair and light eyes, kind of resembling me.

I turn through the pages hurriedly. I see the same man in almost every picture. He stops appearing when I turn about three. I close the book, not understanding a thing I just saw. I hear my mom shut the front door. We scramble to put the book back in the box when we hear her coming up the stairs. We push the box into my closet sand close it. We're sitting on the bed in the same position we had been in when she left when she opened the door. "Hey girls. What have you been doing? Or is this it?" My mom says the last part with a small chuckle. "Yeah this is about it." I say with my eyes glued to the small TV in the corner. She then says that Jaycies dad called and he would be there soon. We say our goodbyes and my mom goes downstairs while Jaycie leaves with her dad.

I sit in my room thinking about that man from the pictures. My mom never talked about my dad. All I knew was that he wasn't around anymore. Every time I tried to talk about him she immediately shut me down. I walk down stairs, determined to get answers. "Mom?" The living room was completely empty. I walked around the corner and found her in the kitchen making dinner. Well it's now or never.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** **I'm not that into A/N so... here ya go.**

"Hey Mom? Can I talk to you?" I step cautiously around the corner into the living room. I see her with a few of her colleagues from work. "Oh hey sweetie! Do you need something?" "Oh...um...uh nevermind" I stutter. "Okay well we'll be in the kitchen if you need us." She says louder than necessary. "Yeah, okay." I bolt back up to my room to escape the awkward situation that is my mom's co-workers.

Ugh… Why didn't my mom tell me she was having company! At least I could have gone to Jaycie's and not been trapped in my room all night… Oh, wait. She probably told me when I was spaced out before Jaycie came over. I let out a big sigh and flop back on my bed. My gaze drifts to the discarded box still hidden in my closet. I walk over and slam the closet door shut and turn on to watch TV, since I have nothing better to do… I start the movie and continue to watch Bring It On for the millionth time.

I wake up on the floor with my clothes still on after I fell asleep halfway through the movie. I hear a chorus of laughter from downstairs and footsteps slowly gravitating towards the staircase. My mom says something that I can't decipher through her drunken haze. She starts to stumble up the stairs followed by the rest of her friends. I try to listen to their conversation and here her say something about a guy. I think she said his name was Mark. I listen to her going on and on about this guy when something in me clicks.

I run across my room and flig open my closet door. I pull the box out on to the floor, landing with a loud thud. I grab the photo album and start flipping through the pages. I find the picture I had spent all day fantasizing over. I carefully peel back the tape holing it in place and turn it over. Scrawled across the back in fading is written: Beatrice, Sofee, Mark 2005. I fall back onto the floor and hold the picture close to my chest. My heart starts beating faster and my breathing becomes eratic. I feel hot, wet tears streaming down my face. Why am I acting like this. I think to myself. I've never even met him. Why does it hurt so much. I sit like that for I don't know how long before I fade back into a dreamless sleep.

I wake up early the next morning, the sun just peeping above the skyline. I look around my room when my eyes land on the box laying discarded in the middle of the floor. I roll out of bed and stuff the album along with the picture into the box. I peer into the hallway and see my moms door still shut. I pick up the box and take into the box into the hallway and cram it back into the closet. I sneek back into my room and quietly shut the door. I climb back into bed and pull the blanket over my head and fall back to sleep.

I wake again to a harsh pounding on my door. "What!" My mom opens the door and stumbles into my room. "The closet door. It was open. Did you get into the closet?" Her eyes are filled with a bunch of emotions, some I can't explain.


End file.
